Wild Boys
by cocopops1995
Summary: Shiro wakes up back in Galra captivity. But he's not having any of that this time. This time he's determined to escape or die trying. Along the way he meets up with some familiar faces, some more unexpected than others. (Written before season 3 aired)
1. Chapter 1

Shiro didn't know for how long he floated in the darkness. Minutes? Days? Years? He supposed anything was possible. He didn't mind the darkness so much. It was peaceful. Quiet. Eventually he began to come out of it.

It was a slow process. Vague sensations came to him at first, but nothing solid enough for his mind to grasp. Soon the vague sensations solidified into feelings of touch, smell, sound. Cold metal pressing into his back and neck. A disturbingly familiar smell. Metallic footsteps marching by.

It didn't make sense. He should feel a soft mattress under him. He should smell clean, filtered air. He should hear the sounds of his team chattering around him. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was… was fighting Zarkon, and winning. He had defeated Zarkon. Hadn't he? He was sure he had. But… wait… something happened after that. He remembered… he remembered feeling a sudden rush of panic from Black. After that determination and… an apology? He wasn't sure, it had all flowed over him so quickly and the next thing he knew…

His breath hitched as the memory of suddenly being ejected out of Black with such force that he blacked out.

The memory was the last thing he needed to push him all the way out of the darkness and into consciousness. His eyes snapped open and he found himself staring up at a gloomy, sickeningly familiar ceiling. He pushed himself up and looked frantically around, taking in the metal walls, pockmarked with scratches and dents from previous prisoners. The smells and the sounds clicked into place and suddenly he couldn't breathe because he was back. Back with the Galra. Back in a prison cell. Back in the standard Galra prisoner uniform. Back in _captivity._ And he couldn't _breathe._

He scrambled backwards until his back it the wall, fighting to pull air into his lungs as the panic really settled in. He couldn't do this again. He couldn't. He wouldn't survive this again. He was going to die at the hands of the Galra as a weak and pathetic slave, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't know how long he stayed curled up in the back of his cell, fighting for breath and and shaking as the panic ran its course through his body.

Eventually he calmed. His thoughts stopped running in vicious circles and settled enough for him to begin thinking clearly again. His breathing returned to something approaching normal, and he didn't feel like he was choking on his own lungs anymore. The violent shaking settled into something closer to a tremble, and his heart rate slowed. He raised his head and wiped the tears off his face. And he decided: No. He was not becoming a prisoner to the Galra again. Oh hell no. He was going to escape, or he was going to die trying. There were no other options.

His determination quickly overpowered the last vestiges of panic and he pushed himself to his feet. He stepped up to the solid metal door and pressed against it, testing it for weaknesses. His eyes fell on his prosthetic and felt a grim smile unfurl on his lips. He'd often wondered why he'd never tried to use the arm to escape when he had been captured previously, he guessed he must have had some reason. Maybe one day he'd actually remember.

He pressed his ear against the door, listening for the sound of sentries coming past. He heard nothing but the sounds of fellow prisoners; a soft _tap, tap, taptap, tap_ coming from somewhere to his left. Shiro would have to free them too. He stepped back, lit up his arm and cut through the hinges of his cell door. His fingers melted through the metal like a hot knife through butter. He wrenched the door open, the metal groaning in protest. He quickly stepped outside, his arm still lit up and ready for an attack.

None was forthcoming. Shiro didn't trust the sudden lack of reaction from the Galra, but he took advantage of it. He quickly scanned his surroundings and saw that he was in some kind of prison hold. But it was small for a Galra ship. He counted only five more cells, besides his own, and only two of those five seemed to be occupied. He frowned and glanced back at the only exit he could spot in the room, still expecting a rush of Galra soldiers at any moment. It wasn't that he minded the lack of an attack, in fact he welcomed it, but this lack of reaction went against everything that he had learnt about the Galra, and it put him on edge.

He walked over to the next locked cell door, lit up his hand, slipped his fingers into the locking mechanism, and yanked the door open, revealing an unexpectedly familiar face.

"Rolo?" he asked incredulously.


	2. Chapter 2

"Shiro?" Rolo asked, echoing Shiro's tone of incredulity, "What are _you_ doing here?"

Shiro glanced back at the exit, still expecting an attack, before looking back at Rolo. He shrugged, "Same as you, I guess." he answered, "Come on, we're escaping."

Shiro stepped away from Rolo's cell and moved to the next locked cell. He repeated the process he had used to open Rolo's cell and was less surprised to find Nyma in it.

"Black Paladin!" she exclaimed and threw herself at him, wrapping him in a grateful hug, "I don't think I've ever been so happy to see someone in my life!"

"Uhh, okay." Shiro said awkwardly.

Rolo snorted, "That's what you said to me the last time we escaped a prison."

Nyma let go of Shiro and shrugged nonchalantly. "That was then, this is now."

Rolo rolled his eyes and turned to Shiro. "So, fearless leader," he said, "What's the plan?"

Shiro looked back at the exit, "Find an escape pod. Escape. Take out anyone who gets in our way."

Rolo grinned, "Nice and simple. I like it. Any idea where the escape pods are?"

Shiro smirked, shrugging as he replied. "Nope."

Nyma rolled her eyes, "Luckily for us we're on a prison supply ship, otherwise we'd all be screwed."

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked, his smirk falling away.

"Prison supply ships have the least security." Nyma answered with a shrug, "Feeding prisoners isn't exactly high on the Galra's to-do-list, you know. It's why you've been able to pull off this escape at all, because these ships usually only have two security details. Sometimes three. That's also why the cells are more heavily reinforced than the usual cells. Not that it mattered to your arm."

Shiro glanced down at his arm and shrugged, "How do you know all this?" he asked

Rolo grinned, "Nyma knows things."

Nyma smirked in turn, not offering any further explanation.

Shiro shrugged. He would have to take that for now, as they didn't exactly have time to chat, but he did need to ask one more thing.

"How many prison holds does a ship like this normally have?"

"Only one." Nyma asked, "They're not usually supposed to transport prisoners, just supplies."

Shiro nodded. That meant that his team was not somewhere else aboard this ship. "Alright then, let's get moving before someone comes along and notices our escape. Let's try and remain undetected for as long as possible."

Rolo nodded, "Yeah, we want to be on that escape pod long before they realise that we're missing and call for back-up."

Shiro nodded and moved towards the exit, Rolo and Nyma trailing close behind him. He peeked around the entryway, wishing he had his armour. He felt vulnerable and exposed, clad only in Galra prison attire.

The hallway ahead of them was mercifully empty so Shiro motioned for the other two to follow him. They made it pretty far down the hallway, constantly looking out for any sign that would lead them to the escape pods, when they suddenly heard the approaching footsteps of a security patrol. Shiro frantically looked around for a place for them to hide.

Nyma made a small noise to draw Shiro and Rolo's attention. They glanced back to see that she had pushed open a side door. They wasted no time diving into the room and Nyma pulled the door closed just before the Galra stepped into view.

Shiro held his breath as they crouched in a dark room and listened to the approaching footsteps, and only let it go once they had faded out of earshot.

He heard Rolo let out a relieved breath beside him, "That was close."

"Yeah." Shiro answered, keeping his voice low, "We should keep moving."

"Hold up a minute." Nyma said, "I found the light switch."

A moment later the room was bathed in a dull purple light, revealing racks filled with all kinds of different supplies. They were in a storage room.

"Hello." Rolo murmured as he stepped toward a shelf right in front of them, "What have we here?"

Shiro recognised that tone as Lance's "I'm about to get up to mischief," tone and eyed Rolo warily as the space pirate held up a tube of little blue rocks that sparkled dully in the purple light.

"What is that?" Shiro asked.

"Oh this? This is Pixurite. Harmless on it's own. When dissolved in water it can be used as a strong disinfectant. And this-" he picked up a bottle filled with some sort of green, viscous liquid, "Is the Last Poison of the Sulphora Blossom, Sulphora Poison for short. It's a mildly acidic substance produced naturally by the Sulphora Blossom of planet Gmali. Also harmless on its own, used primarily as a cleaning agent. But," Rolo grinned, "Mix this-" he held up the tube of Pixurite in his left hand, "And this-" he held up the bottle Sulphora Poison, "And you get one huge _boom._ "

Shiro raised his eyebrows, impressed, "Great. Grab some. Just in case."

Rolo's grin widened, "I like the way you think, Black Paladin."

Nyma made a sound of triumph somewhere towards the back of the room. "You guys are never going to guess what I found!" she called.

Rolo and Shiro glanced at each other before making their way to the back of the room.

"Look, it's our stuff!" She exclaimed when they got closer, waving her hand over a couple of ratty sacks and pile of weapons ranging from guns to knives. "There's yours." she said to Shiro, pointing to a lower shelf.

Shiro could see the tip of his helmet peeking out of a box on that shelf and he immediately pulled the box out, unable to stop a grin from spreading across his face. He immediately pulled the tattered, purple overgarment over his head and tossed it to the side before beginning to pull his armour on over the undergarment. By the time he was done, Rolo and Nyma had gathered up their things, as well as a generous helping of Pixurite and Sulphora Poison.

"Ready to go?" Rolo asked.

Shiro nodded and slipped his helmet on over his head. He desperately wanted to try and contact his team, but that would have to wait for later. First they needed to escape.

"Let's go find us an escape pod."


	3. Chapter 3

Of course, an alarm _would_ start blaring incessantly almost as soon as they pulled the storage door closed behind them.

Rolo cursed. "Looks like they've noticed our escape."

Shiro, having come to the same conclusion, nodded grimly. "We have to keep moving."

"Any idea which way we should go?" Rolo asked.

Shiro opened his mouth to reply, but was quickly cut off by Nyma, "Left down the next corridor, then the third right."

Shiro and Rolo both turned their heads to look back at Nyma with incredulous expressions.

"What?" she asked, "There's a map." She pointed to the opposite wall.

Shiro and Rolo looked where she was pointing and saw that there was indeed a map on the wall.

"Great work, Nyma." Shiro said, automatically falling into his Black Paladin persona, "Let's go!"

No less than a second later, a voice from behind them commanded: "Freeze!"

Shiro whipped his head around to see four Galra guards standing at the end of a hallway with their weapons aimed at him and his companions.

He lit up his arm and prepared to raise his shield and step in front of Nyma, who was closest to the the group of guards, but she was faster. Almost before he could blink, Nyma had pulled out two of the guns she had retrieved from the storage room and had aimed them at the guards.

"I don't think so." she said, her tone light and confident.

"Drop your weapon!" one of the guards ordered.

Nyma aimed a charming smile at him, "Why don't you come make me?" her tone has turned downright seductive.

"Help keep them distracted!" Rolo, who was between Nyma and Shiro, hissed at Shiro, already beginning to dig through the pack he now carried on his back.

Shiro nodded and stepped forward, his shield ready to be raised in a split second's notice and his arm easily visible.

"I said FREEZE!" the guard Nyma had been seducing with her smile shouted at Shiro. "And I told _you_ to drop your weapon!" He turned his attention back to Nyma, who continued to aim that charming smile at him.

"Didn't you hear the lady?" Shiro asked, working to keep his own tone light and conversational as he stopped next to Nyma, "She said you should come make her drop her weapon, and I don't think shouting at her to do so is working, is it?" he directed the question at Nyma.

"No," she said, "It's really not."

"Maybe he just doesn't get it." Shiro said. "Maybe you should spell it out for him."

"Or, maybe he's too afraid to get close to a lady." her voice had taken up that seductive tone again.

"Both of you, shut up!" the guard in question commanded, and Shiro did not miss the slightly flustered tone to his voice, "Stand down or we will shoot!"

"Hey, man." Rolo's easy-going voice suddenly piped up from behind Shiro, "I think he really is scared of getting close to a lady. Guess he'll never have the chance now."

Shiro had exactly 3 seconds wonder what Rolo was planning to do before a bottle of something green and speckled with blue went flying over his head, straight into the group of guards. He had another second to think that Rolo had a really good throwing arm, and another half a second to raise his shield and hold it up to protect himself, Nyma and Rolo from the blast that erupted from the thrown bottle as soon as it landed between the cluster of guards on the other end of the hallway.

The blast wasn't particularly big, just enough to seriously injure those standing close to it, but the structure of the hallway pushed the blast out and Shiro and the other two would have been badly injured as well, if not for his shield.

As soon as it was possible to do so, the three of them sprang up and ran; Shiro and Rolo following Nyma's directions to the escape pods, the alarm still blaring incessantly in their ringing ears.

The pods themselves were guarded by two sentries, which Nyma easily picked off with her gun. Rolo dashed straight to the control panel and started the sequence that would eject the pods. There were two in total. Both doors slid open with a quiet hiss. Nyma immediately stepped into one of the pods. Shiro was close behind her but stopped at the door when he saw Rolo pause to dig in his pack again.

He pulled out two bottles of Sulphora Poison and popped their lids off. Then he reached back in and pulled out a bottle of Pixurite. He sprinkled a handful of the Pixurite into one of the bottles of Sulphora poison and then dashed back to the door of the room they were in and hurled the bottled hard in the direction they had come from. A loud boom soon followed. Then Rolo readied the next Pixurite-Sulphora bomb and rolled it into the other escape pod.

"This one will take a little longer to blow since I didn't break it." Rolo explained and then stepped past Shiro, into their escape pod. "Alright, boys and girls, hold onto your butts and say your prayers, we are getting out of here!"

Shiro grinned as the door slid closed behind him. He let Rolo handle the flying and turned to watch as they were released from the ship. He couldn't quite help himself then. He lifted his natural arm and extended his middle finger at the Galra ship. He knew it was childish and premature; they weren't safe yet, but damn if doing so didn't send a little wave of satisfaction rolling through him.


	4. Chapter 4

Things went well for all of ten minutes. Then Shiro and Nyma were thrown forward as the escape pod suddenly jerked to a halt.

"Rolo, what the hell?" Nyma asked, as she picked herself up.

Rolo cursed, "We've been caught in a tractor beam!"

Shiro uttered a curse of his own, "The backup?"

Rolo squinted out of the pod's little window and frowned. "Nah," he said after a moment, "Doesn't look Galra."

Nyma shoved Rolo out of the way, ignoring his "Hey!" of protest, and looked out of the little window too, a frown also evident on her face. After a moment she stepped away, her frown one of confusion.

"It's just a standard cargo ship with no markings on." She said, "There's no telling who or what they are."

Shiro didn't like the sound of that. He had long ago discovered that out in space, the unknown was rarely good.

"I don't like this." Rolo said, pulling a pistol-looking weapon out of his waistband and checking it over.

"Me neither." Shiro said, "But there's nothing we can do to get away in this pod. So we'll just have to be ready for anything."

Rolo and Nyma nodded and Nyma pulled her two guns out and held them loosely at her sides.

"Alright, you two try and stay behind me. If things get ugly I'll raise my shield to provide us some cover, then you guys take as many of them out with your weapons. As soon as it's clear enough I'll join the fight. Rolo, how many more of those bombs can you make?"

Rolo checked his pack, "About five or six."

"Great, we'll probably need them again, but don't use them unless you have to." Shiro said.

Rolo grinned, "This plan has much more detail than your last one."

Shiro smirked at him, "Sometimes I like to actually think a thing through, you know, once in a while."

Nyma rolled her eyes.

A moment later the pod jerked again as it was pulled completely into the other ship's cargo bay and set down.

Shiro took his place in front of the pod's door, waiting for it to be opened from the outside, and Rolo and Nyma took their places behind him, their weapons held ready. All of them tensed and ready for an attack.

What felt like an eternity, but could only have been a few minutes later, the door slid open to reveal a tall, blue-skinned alien standing with his own rifle-like weapon held ready to fire at those inside the pod.

The blue alien and the trio regarded each other wearily for a moment. Then the blue alien said: "You're not Galra."

Shiro's eyebrows drew together. He hadn't been expecting that, but okay. "No." he said, "We're not."

"Prisoners, then?" the blue alien asked. His irises were neon-orange that contrasted surprisingly well with the dark blue of his skin, "Since you're in an escape pod."

Shiro regarded him for another moment before nodding. "Who are you, and what do you want with us."

The alien grinned and lowered his weapon, "We don't want anything with you. We thought you were escaping Galra that we could capture and interrogate for information. But since you're not, there's nothing much you can give us for the moment. I say 'for the moment' because it's up to the Captain. He'll want to meet you first, and then he'll decide what to do with you."

"And what if we don't want to go meet this Captain of yours?' Rolo asked, suspicion clear in his voice.

The blue alien shrugged, "Not up to you. The Captain meets everyone we bring on to the ship in person and then decides what to do with them. It's protocol."

"Protocol?" Shiro asked.

The blue alien nodded, "Now you can come on your own accord, or we can come in there and get you. And don't think that you can shoot your way past us. When you entered the ship you passed through a field that cancels out small weapons such as your hand-held ones out."

"Oh yeah?" Nyma's challenge was followed by a click, and then nothing.

Shiro's frown deepened, he wondered how the field had affected his arm, but he didn't want to give it away yet.

"How do we know you won't just shoot us all as soon as we step outside of the pod?" he asked.

The blue alien cocked his head, "If we had wanted you dead, I would have shot you already. Besides, our quarrel is with the Galra, no one else. Unless you intend to get in our way."

Shiro regarded him for a moment more before moving into a more relaxed stance. He glanced back at Rolo and was answered with a terse, but unhappy, nod. A glance at Nyma was answered with a scowl and a shrug, she was obviously not happy about the fact that her guns had been rendered useless. Shiro was just impressed, and made a mental note to mention these people's weapon nullifying field to Pidge once he rejoined team Voltron.

Once they stepped out of the pod they were met by five more aliens of various shapes and sizes, all armed and, Shiro noticed, wearing similar clothes. As if the crew on this ship adhered to a specific dress code, but with no identifying marks. Shiro felt as if he had stepped on to some sort of some sort of black ops ship.

The blue-skinned alien that had spoken to them motioned for them to follow him. As they walked down a long, dim corridor, Rolo nudged Shiro. When Shiro looked over, Rolo glanced down at his pack and then back up at Shiro again, this time with his eyebrows raised in question. Shiro surmised that he was asking about the Sulphora and Pixurite that he still carried. Shiro shook his head. They were at a disadvantage in this ship. They needed to know more before just blowing things up. Besides, so far these aliens didn't seem hostile. Maybe they would turn out to be allies.

Of course he couldn't say any of that out loud, but Rolo seemed to accept his assessment and dropped the subject with a shrug.

Shiro just hoped that the captain they were being taken to see would turn out to be a reasonable one.


	5. Chapter 5

Shiro didn't know what he had been expecting when he met the Captain. It definitely wasn't brown-haired human wearing round glasses with thick lenses that hid his brown eyes. Shiro certainly wasn't expecting the Captain to be someone _familiar,_ much less someone he _knew._ There was absolutely no way in hell that Shiro expected the Captain to be _Matthew Holt._

Shiro actually didn't recognise him at first. Work at the labour camps had filled out his muscles and transformed him from the skinny boy Shiro knew before to the strong man that now stood before him. Then again, Shiro knew he wasn't the same as he had been the last time Matt had seen him, so why should he expect Matt to stay the same?

"Captain," the blue-skinned alien addressed Matt, "There were no Galra on the escape pod, only these three."

Matt waved a dismissive hand and threw a glance in their direction, "I'll deal with them later. Just keep an eye on them until -" he cut himself off, this time turning to look at them directly. His eyes focused on Shiro's face.

Matt's eyes went wide. "Shiro?" he asked, disbelief colouring his tone.

"Matt?" Shiro said, echoing Matt's tone. He still hadn't gotten over the shock of seeing Matt here. In the middle of a bridge on a rebel space ship. Apparently leading an army of rebels. He really hadn't been expecting any of this at all.

"Hey," the blue alien barked at Shiro, "That's _Captain Holt_ to you!"

"Woah, Drozan, calm down." Matt said as he stepped off the raised platform he had been standing on in the middle of the room, "Shiro and I go way back!"

Before Shiro really knew what was happening, Matt had thrown his arms around Shiro and enveloped him in a firm hug. Shiro stiffened for a moment before relaxing and throwing his arms around Matt, reciprocating the hug.

"Man, I thought I'd never see you again." Matt muttered in Shiro's ear, still holding on to him.

Shiro squeezed him tighter, "Me too." he admitted.

They stayed like that, just holding on to each other, as over a year's worth of worry for one another leaked into the embrace. Until someone cleared their throat.

"Sir," a feminine voice sounded from the other side of the bridge, "The pilots are ready to deploy."

Matt jerked away from Shiro, as if only just remembering that he was supposed to be leading these rebels. Shio cast a look around and noticed that quite a few of the rebels were gawking at him and Matt.

"Right," Matt said, straightening up and stepping back up on the raised platform in the middle of the bridge. He slipped on a headset and said into the microphone by his mouth: "Gold Captain to Red Leader, you are a go. Let's blast some Galra tail. Axo," he addressed a green-skinned alien with four arms and long, red hair pulled back in a ponytail, "Ready the canon and standby in case they call for back-up."

"Yessir!" Axo said, and busied himself with carrying out Matt's orders on the terminal in front of him.

"Commander Drozan," Matt addressed the blue-skinned alien, "Please have Shiro's friends escorted to the dining room and keep an eye on them there. Shiro, you're welcome to either go with them or stay here."

Shiro turned to Rolo and Nyma, "Can I trust you two not to blow anything up?" he asked them.

Rolo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. You hang out with your boyfriend. We'll go to the dining room like good little soldiers."

Shiro rolled his eyes and opted to ignore Rolo's boyfriend remark. "Thank you for bringing us up to meet the Captain, Commander." He addressed Drozan, "I'd like to remain here."

Drozan nodded, obviously pleased that Shiro had picked up on and used his rank. He dipped his head in Matt's direction and then indicated for Rolo and Nyma to follow him. Once they had left the bridge, Matt beckoned Shiro over to him.

Shiro stepped up onto the raised platform and took his first proper look around. The bridge's setup was eerily similar to that of the _Starship Enterprise_ , with the only difference being that Matt stood in front of a semicircle of monitors on a raised platform, instead of sitting on a captain's chair, and there was less than half the amount of crew members. The crew also wore all black, instead of the colourful Starfleet uniforms. Shiro shook his head and told himself to stop being silly. The similarities were probably purely coincidental.

Then Matt, after issuing a few more commands, gave Shiro a mischievous look and said: "Shiro, welcome to the Rebel Alliance."

Shiro froze, allowed that to sink in, and then shot Matt an 'Are you kidding me?' look. Matt replied with an 'I am totally serious.' look and Shiro could not hold back a short burst of laughter.

Matt grinned at him before turning back to the screens in front of him. He explained that the Alliance had intercepted some Galra intel a few quintents ago. Prisoner supply ships were the easiest to hit for supplies and to get more intel. Matt honestly didn't understand what the Galra didn't protect these supply lines better, but he wasn't complaining. They didn't usually hit prisoner supply ships, though, because Matt knew how little food prisoners already had. They hadn't really planned on hitting any of the prisoner supply ships, but a few vargas ago the intel had been updated to reveal that this particular ship had been carrying precious cargo.

"Precious cargo?" Shiro asked.

Matt nodded, bringing up visuals of his fighter ships that were now headed for the prisoner supply ship that Shiro and the others had just escaped from. "No idea what it's supposed to be."

Shiro sighed, "Probably me."

Matt raised an eyebrow at him and then shrugged, "It's possible, I guess they really want their Champion back."

Shiro raised an eyebrow and wondered if Matt somehow didn't know about Voltron yet. He supposed it wasn't impossible. He shrugged in reply to Matt's musing and said: "I guess."

He'd see what Matt knew about Voltron once the mission was completed.

"Weird that they didn't send extra backup, though." Matt said, "If they knew you were the precious cargo, you'd think they'd want to make sure you couldn't escape again."

Shiro shrugged again, "Could be for a number a reasons. Maybe they didn't want to tip anyone off that they had anything different from usual on the ship. More likely, things are slipping through the cracks now that Zarkon's out of the picture."

Matt whipped his head to look at Shiro so quickly, it was a wonder he didn't give himself whiplash. "What do you mean, 'Zarkon's out of the picture.'? How can you possibly know that he is?"

Shiro winced, well, so much for waiting until the mission's over. "It's a long story." he said, "You've heard of Voltron?"

Matt's eyebrows creased, "I've heard rumours of some legendary warrior called Voltron. From what I can piece together, the _Power Rangers_ are apparently the universe's greatest hope." he answered, scoffing.

Shiro couldn't help throwing his head back and laughing at that. "Actually," he said once he had calmed again, "We're _much_ cooler than the _Power Rangers_."

Matt gaped at him. "Wait, _what_?"

Shiro grinned, "Like I said, it's a long story, but yeah. We fought Zarkon and I'm pretty sure we beat him. I really don't see how he could have survived that attack. Even if he did, he'll be out of action for a long while."

Matt regarded him for a moment, "Evidently we have a lot to talk about."

Shiro nodded, "You can say that again."

Shiro turned his gaze to the windows that allowed the bridge to see what was happening outside, and watched at two of Matt's ship's docked with the supply ship that he had just escaped from.

He frowned.

"Have they not called for backup yet?" he wondered out loud, "Things can't be so disorganised in the Empire that no one is available to respond to a ship in distress, can it?"

Matt shrugged, "Who knows. But, what I can tell you is that even if they try to call for backup it won't work. We're jamming the signal."

Impressed, Shiro stood back and watched and listened as Matt communicated with his team. Of course, Shiro always knew that Matt was a good leader, he'd lead his own research team back at the Garrison, after all. But watching him lead a bunch of rebels was something altogether different. And Shiro couldn't help but feel pride rise up in his chest. And then it suddenly hit him. He was really standing next to Matt. He had his best friend back. The wave of happiness he felt right then temporarily overwhelmed all the guilt he felt about how he had treated Matt back at the arena, and he couldn't quite keep a pleased smile off his face.

Matt seemed to have the same problem, though, so Shiro didn't feel to bad about smiling in the middle of an operation.

Matt's rebel team on the supply ship finished gathering their intel quickly. When Matt asked how Shiro had managed to blow up an escape pod, Shiro replied only with a smirk and a shrug. Matt rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his team.

Less than an hour later, all the rebels had returned to the ship and Matt was readying the ship to jump into hyperspace.

As soon as they were safely on their way, Matt stepped off his platform and motioned for Shiro to follow him. He lead Shiro down a short corridor and into the Captain's quarters. Shiro was unsurprised to find the walls covered with various blueprints, all full of notes written in Matt's untidy scrawl.

Shiro raised an eyebrow, "Side projects?"

Matt smirked as he cleared some space on the small table right at the back of the room, "You could say that." he said.

He settled in one of the two chairs at the table.

"Alright," he said, gesturing for Shiro to take the second chair, "Spill."


	6. Chapter 6

"So let me get this straight." Matt said, sometime later, "You, the problem child, my little sister, and two other kids from the Garrison, fly giant space lions - that are sentient, because why not? - and these lions combine to form this Voltron that I've been hearing all the rumours about."

Shiro nodded, "That's the super-short version of it, yes."

"And there is an actual Galra resistance that has been operating from the shadows like Batman wannabes for the past who knows how long."

Shiro nodded again, "Yeah, and they have really cool technology."

Matt nodded, "Right, technology that I definitely want to get my hands on. And then you guys teamed up with the Galra resistance and kicked Zarkon's ass."

Shiro nodded again, "At least, I'm pretty sure we did. I got ejected into space and passed out right after hitting him, so I can't be one hundred percent certain."

Matt nodded again, and then sat back in the chair he was seated in, opposite Shiro, at the little desk he had in his quarters. "Wow."

Shiro nodded again, "Yeah."

"And you have no idea why your lion decided to eject you into space again?"

Shiro shook his head, "I remember vague feelings, but it happened so quickly. It's almost like something caused him to panic… which lead to him ejecting me. For some reason. I won't know for sure until I can connect to him again."

"And you need to be in closer proximity to the lion to be able to do so."

"Yeah, seems like connecting with a paladin over great distances is Red's thing at the moment."

Matt nodded and seemed to be trying to absorb everything he had just learnt. Shiro waited, he knew everything he'd just told his friend was a lot to take in.

Eventually Matt shook himself out of his daze and said: "Damn, son. You sure have been hella busy since the last time I saw you."

The last time Matt had seen Shiro, snarling and baying for blood, flashed through Shiro's mind for a moment. He winced at the terror that he remembered seeing on his friend's face. Now that his current situation had become a real and solid reality to him, he couldn't understand how Matt could stand to look at him, let alone sit right across a small table from him, now. Surely Matt must resent Shiro now for injuring him and sentencing him to life as a slave for the Galra.

"Matt," Shiro said, his voice coming out strained with sudden emotion, "I'm so sorry."

Matt's eyes grew wide and alarmed, "What? Why? What did I say? I don't - what are you talking about, man?"

Shiro looked at the table, suddenly unable to meet Matt's eyes, "For… for the last time we saw each other." he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Matt didn't immediately reply. Shiro imagined that the same look of terror he remembered must have returned to Matt's face. Or perhaps he wore a look of anger or disgust. Shiro was too afraid to look up and find out.

"Are… are you talking about the gladiator arena? When you saved me from being slaughtered?"

Shiro finally lifted his head, surprised into doing so both by Matt's words and the confusion in his voice.

"Because I don't hold that against you. Not at all. In fact, I'm glad you did."

Shiro frowned, "But, I hurt you. I remember, you looked so scared of me."

Matt mirrored Shiro's frown, "We'll obviously my best friend suddenly seeming to completely lose his mind scared the crap out of me in what was _already_ a terrifying situation. But it didn't take me long to figure out why you did it, and then I was mostly terrified _for_ _you,_ Shiro. I thought you'd taken my place to die, while at the same time allowing me to live. How could you possibly expect me to hold any of that against you?"

"I-" Shiro began, but his argument died in his throat when he saw the utter sincerity in Matt's eyes.

"If you ever do something like that again, I _will_ be pissed, though. As you can see, I am now perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And I have the Rebel Alliance at my beck and call. So no more stupid stunts. Got it?"

Shiro felt a small smile unfurl on his lips, "The Rebel Alliance?" he asked, trying to avoid making any promises he couldn't be sure he could keep.

"You still don't believe me about the name, do you?" Matt asked, amusement clear in his voice, successfully distracted.

"Ah, no. Not really."

"Well, what else was I supposed to name a group of rebels going up against an empire?"

" _You_ named them?" Shiro asked incredulously.

Matt grinned and then fell into a tale of his own. He explained that although he had been reunited with his father after Shiro had injured him, they had been separated again a short time later, both sent to different labour camps. Matt with no time for his leg to heal

Shiro felt his stomach clamp at that. He clenched fist on the table in frustration. Of course the Galra would separate them. Why had he expected any form of kindness from them.

Matt noticed Shiro's clenched fist on the table and quickly carried on before Shiro could ask if the leg had sustained any permanent damage, "I kept to myself at first. Just keeping my head low and trying to do the work they gave me. It was difficult at first, with my leg, but they saw that I was good with the machines so they ended up sticking maintenance where I actually got to sit while working. I helped to fix and improve the smaller parts of the machinery used in the mine. Of course, that meant working much longer hours but," He shrugged, "I got to work with machines and my leg got to heal. So there's that.

"Eventually I fell into a group of prisoners that were itching to start a rebellion, but they were a bunch of muscle without the brains to come up with a good enough plan for escape. By that time my leg was fully healed, and I was ready to get the hell out of that hellhole. So I offered to help them. In return one of the prisoners, Drozan's brother, taught me how to fight. His name was Irkin, and he was our leader at first."

Pain suddenly flashed in Matt's eyes and he looked away for a moment, collecting himself. When he finally looked up to continue, his eyes were misty.

"He handed his command over to me as he was dying in Drozan's arms. He was badly injured during our escape, and died shortly afterward." he let out a dry chuckle, "I honestly still don't understand why. Drozan would have made a much better leader than me, but he wouldn't go against his brother's dying wish. So here I am." he shrugged, "At least he agreed to be my second in command. I'd be totally lost without him. I've been searching for my dad ever since."

"Anyway, after we escaped we hijacked a pod and got the hell out of dodge. We flew around kind of aimlessly for a while before coming across the planet we now have our base on. When the people there asked us to identify ourselves, all I could think of was the _Rebel Alliance_ from Star Wars." he shrugged, "So I went with it."

Shiro shook his head, chuckling, "Only you."

Matt grinned and then shook his head, his expression turning from one of amusement to one of quiet wonder, "Who'd have guessed that we'd both end up going from space explorers to being unwilling leaders of groups fighting against an evil alien empire?"

Shiro shook his head, "Definitely not me." he chuckled again, "The the _Rebel Alliance_ though?"

"Well what _else_ was I supposed to name them? Do you have any idea what it's been like to be part of a group of rebels whose very name is a reference to one of the greatest movie sagas of all time and be the _only_ one who gets it?" Matt asked, his eyes wide.

Shiro laughed out loud once more, "I cannot imagine the pain you must have been enduring." he said and then winked mischievously at Matt and said: "But, I understood that reference."

Matt let out a delighted chuckle, "And I understood _that_ reference!" he reached out and gripped Shrio's flesh hand and squeezed it tightly, "I missed you so much."

Shiro squeezed Matt's hand in return, a swirl of emotions suddenly welling up in his chest again, "I missed you too."

"To be totally honest, Shiro, I blamed myself for what happened back at the gladiator arena. If I hadn't been so weak you would never have had to put yourself in my place like that."

Shiro immediately shook his head in protest, "No, Matt -"

"But that sacrifice that you made," Matt overrode Shiro's protest, "It's what kept me going, Shiro. I promised myself I would never again be so weak that I caused someone else's death again. And whenever I felt like giving up, I thought of what you did for me. What you gave up so that I could live. And it inspired me to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep _living._ I don't think you believed me earlier when I said I didn't hold it against you. I just want you to understand exactly what it actually meant to me."

Tears stood clear and obvious in Matt's eyes as he spoke, and spilled over as he finished.

Shiro slammed his eyes closed against his own tears and took deep breaths, trying to bring his emotions back under control. But it was just too damn hard after hearing those words from Matt. He didn't know exactly how he felt about them. All this time he'd thought Matt had hated him for attacking him back then, only to find out that Matt had been inspired by it? It was too much and Shiro didn't know what to do with the information. So the tears leaked out of his eyes regardless of his efforts to keep them maintained.

Suddenly Matt materialised on Shiro's left. He glanced over just long enough to see that Matt had moved his chair next to Shiro's. Matt slung an arm over Shiro's shoulders and pulled him close. Shiro responded by reaching up with his flesh arm to cling to the back of Matt's shirt.

That's how they stayed for some time. Neither speaking. Both crying. Holding on to each other for support and comfort.


	7. Chapter 7

When they finally landed on the Rebel Alliance's base planet it was, to Shiro's surprise, a Balmera.

"Woah." Rolo commented, standing next to Shiro in the viewing bay, "I've never seen a Balmera in such pristine condition.

"Me neither." Shiro agreed, "Although, this is only the second one I've ever seen."

Rolo only snorted in amusement.

"It's beautiful." Nyma said, standing on Rolo's other side.

"It really is." Shiro answered as he took in the rolling green hills, bespeckled with gleaming crystals that grew freely and plentifully over the planet's surface. The Balmera's sun reflected off the crystals so that it looked like a million camera flashes going off all at once. It was truly breathtaking.

Equally as impressive was the town that spread out to the west of the hills. It was a fairly big town that seemed to bustle with activity. The houses looked modest, but all gleamed with the same shine as the crystals that grew in the field. Most impressive was the cluster of crystals that grew in the middle of the town. A few of them nearly as tall as some of earth's skyscrapers. It was magnificent. He imagined Allura, and Coran especially, would love it here. On the far side of the town was another hill, also bespeckled with crystals.

Beezer let out a series of beeps from his spot in between Rolo and Nyma. Rolo's only response was to smile and pat the little robot on the head. He had been very grateful when the rebel team that had infiltrated the prison supply ship they had escaped from had returned with Beezer in tow. Apparently Rolo and Nyma had thought that the Galra would have melted the little guy down, or used him for parts. They were both glad that this wasn't the case.

Shiro was happy for them.

"Great view, right?" Matt asked.

Shiro turned to see Matt entering the room with Drozan following close behind.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Shiro said before nodding respectful at Drozan, "Commander." he said in greeting.

Drozan nodded in return but didn't say anything.

"Ah, Rolo and Nyma, correct? I've heard a lot about you and Deezer." Matt addressed Shiro's companions.

"Uh," Rolo said, glancing nervously first at Nyma and then at Shiro, who merely shrugged.

Matt smirked, "Don't look so nervous. I want to make you an offer."

"What kind of offer?" Rolo asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"To join the Rebel Alliance. From what I've heard, you'd both make valuable assets to the Alliance. We could always use more capable fighters, and pilots." Matt said.

"And if we don't want to join your Rebel Alliance?" Nyma asked.

"Then we drop you off on a planet a few galaxies over so you can't find your way back." Drozan answered.

Matt caught Shiro's raised eyebrow at that and explained: "The only reason why we've been able to build the Alliance up as much as we have and keep it going is because we're paranoid."

Shiro nodded, because that made sense. And he's heard the same explanation before from the Blade of Marmora. He wondered idly how the Rebel Alliance and the Blade of Marmora would feel about joining forces.

"You don't have to decide now." Matt told Rolo and Nyma, "Take a few days to think about it. Come find either me or Drozan when you've reached a decision."

Rolo and Nyma shared a look with each other. Beezer let out a series of beeps.

"We'll think about it." Rolo answered after a moment, "Thank you."

Matt smiled, "No problem. Drozan will show you to where you can stay while you're here."

Drozan nodded, "If you'll follow me." he said, nodding at both Matt and Shiro before leading Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer out.

"He's intense." Shiro commented once they were gone.

Matt snorted, "You have no idea. He's been like that for as long as I've known him. But he's a good person."

"And that's all that matters." Shiro said.

Matt nodded, "Come on, they want to move the ship to it's hangar. And when I say 'hangar' I mean the canyon behind those hills where it's less easily spotted."

"Sure." Shiro said as Matt lead him out of the ship. "You didn't mention that your base planet is a Balmera."

"I didn't?" Matt asked, sounding confused, then he shrugged, "My bad. Yeah, this is one of the very few Balmeras left undiscovered by the Galra. When we landed, the Balmeran's gladly offered us food and shelter. In return we offered to keep it protected. They'd been worried about an invasion for a while at that point, so they gladly accepted our offer.

"Of course, at that point we were only six people with only an escape pod. But it was then that we decided to start a proper rebellion against the Galra. Dekkan, he's a mechanic, and I fixed up the escape pod with the help of a crystal from the Balmera, and we started flying to nearby trade moons that are either too small to be a space mall, or that just haven't been turned into one yet, and started recruiting, and collecting weapons and other useful things."

The cargo ship took off once Shiro and Matt were safe distance away, and they watched as it rose back into the air.

"That's smart," Shiro said, noticing that there were absolutely no markings on the ship whatsoever. It was also huge. Close to the size of a small apartment building back on earth, "Using an unmarked cargo ship. Much less noticeable than using an actual warship."

Matt nodded next to him and grinned, "But rest assured, although _Penelope_ looks tame, she is warship worthy. Dekkan and I spent hours rigging her out with all manner of weapons and upgrades. Transforming the bottom floor into an onboard hangar for the smaller fighter pods was easier said than done, but we figured it out, and now we can travel long distances without being worried about being noticed or running out of fuel. She's the biggest ship in our little fleet. Dekkan and I are constantly working on ways to make her better, faster, stronger. Although I wish we could figure out how to cloak her. That would be awesome."

Shiro grinned, "Ask Pidge when you see her. She can definitely hook you up with that."

Matt smiled fondly, "That doesn't even surprise me." he said.

They were quiet for a moment. A light breeze gently teased Shiro's white forelock as they watched _Penelope_ disappear behind the shimmering hills.

"How big is the Alliance?" Shiro asked after a moment.

"We're still relatively small." Matt answered, turning and beginning to lead Shiro to the town he'd seen from the ship earlier, "There are about 150 rebels in total now. Our fleet is made up of _Penelope_ and five fighter pods, six now that we have your escape pod. Converting it won't take too long."

Shiro nodded, impressed, "That's a lot of growth for, what? Four, five months? Where did you get all your spacecraft from?"

"Mostly they came with pilots who joined the Alliance." Matt answered, "How we got _Penelope_ is a whole other story for a different day. Let's just say for now that it was the most awkward experience of my life."

Shiro couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Matt's face. "I'm looking forward to hearing that story."

Matt shuddered, before carrying on as if he'd never been distracted, "We haven't gotten much Galra activity around here yet. They've only recently started moving into this galaxy. Apparently they only have a few left to conquer."

Shiro nodded because he knew this was true, "They've conquered most of the known universe, but there are still a few places that they haven't gotten to yet. The Milky Way is still one of them."

Matt nodded, "That's good to hear, at least."

"It should stay that way now that Zarkon's been defeated, though." Shiro said.

Matt looked a little skeptical, but he didn't comment.

Before Shiro could question him about it, they reached the town and were immediately greeted by a Balmeran woman dressed in a flowing green dress with intricate designs embroidered into it in silver. Around her neck a shard of Balmeran crystal hung from a simple leather cord.

"Friend Matthew! It is good to see your safe return once more." She greeted him warmly.

Matt smiled, "Thanks Leia. It's good to be back. How're things here?"

She answered, but Shiro didn't really hear. He was too busy trying to figure out if he'd heard her name right.

"I'd like to introduce you to my good friend, Takashi, although everyone calls him Shiro." Matt's introduction pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, your best friend who is also an excellent pilot." She exclaimed, turning to face Shiro, "It is good to finally meet you, Takashi. I have heard much about you. I am Leia. I serve as the representative of this Balmera and it's people."

Shiro smiled and bowed his head respectfully, "It's good to meet you too. This Balmera is beautiful."

Leia beamed at him, "Thank you."

"Leia, I'm going to take Shiro below and show him around, alright? We'll see you later."

"Below?" Shiro asked as Matt lead him through the town.

"The Rebel Alliance's HQ. The Balmera was nice enough to create a space for us to operate. It's in that hill." Matt answered, pointing to the hill situated on the other side of the town, "It's rare that we get visitors here, but we don't want to advertise that there's a rebel group using this Balmera as a base. If word got out -"

"The Galra would come gunning straight for you. I understand."

Eventually they reached the big hill. Matt lead Shiro to a tunnel, hidden behind some crystals. The tunnel winds for a long ways until finally opening up to a huge cavern. What was inside the cavern looked like a little town on its own. There's a cluster of small tents set up to the left of the cavern. To the right stood three larger tents.

"Most of the Rebels stay down here." Matt begins explaining, "Others prefer living up top, though. The three big tents form the actual HQ. The biggest one is communications, the two smaller ones are the war room and my workshop." he points out each tent as he names them.

"Wow." Shiro said, "This is really impressive."

"It's still nowhere near enough to actually start taking on the Galra yet." Matt says with a shrug, "We're still building up our manpower and weaponry, but for now it's enough to help keep our little piece of the galaxy safe."

Matt led Shiro to the communications tent, all the while explaining that besides being great power sources, he'd found that the Balmera's crystals were great for amplifying communications signals. It's how they'd been able to keep track of communications that go on in and around their territory. The inside of the tent was impressive. Long tables, filled with all manner of radios run along one wall and a huge screen covers another. There were also tables with a few different computer consoles spread out over the floor of the tent. Shiro wondered where Matt even got half this stuff and decided to ask him about it later.

"So what I'm going to do is start broadcasting a signal as far out as I can. In it I'll embed a message for Katie." Matt explained as he settled in front of one of the computers, "We developed our own cyber-language that only we know and understand a few years back. Anyone else who picks it up will only get static, but Katie will recognize it and be able to decode it."

Shiro smiled, it didn't surprise him in the least that Matt and Pidge had their very own cyber-language. He'd tried to contact his team earlier, and in doing so he'd discovered that his helmet wasn't receiving any kind of signal. Matt had checked it over and determined that nothing was broken. Which meant that the Castle was out of range. He refused to consider the other explanation for the silence.

Shiro settled down next to Matt to watch him work, for now content to wait for his friends to find him.


	8. Chapter 8

Shiro was beginning to lose patience. Matt's patience had reached its end about a week before.

The worst part of the waiting for Shiro was the uncertainty over his team. It was the latest thing to keep him up at night. He'd lie, staring at the ceiling, wondering if they were alright. Did their lions eject them too? Had they also been picked up by the Galra? He refused to consider the idea any of them floating aimlessly through space if they hadn't been picked up, because that would mean that they were dead by now, and he refused to think that way. Not yet.

It wasn't like they had been waiting idly, though. After about a week, Matt had recruited Shiro for one of his scouting and recruiting missions. It went off without a hitch, and they went on several similar missions after that. They'd even managed to recruit another pilot, along with his ship, on one of those missions. The pilot was still quite inexperienced, so Shiro helped Drozan to train him. It turned out that Drozan was a very skilled pilot, and a good teacher. Shiro found himself learning new things himself as Drozan taught the new pilot.

Shiro, more experienced with combat flying, helped Drozan to figure out flight maneuvers and plans that would help the Rebels to be prepared for fights with enemy ships when the time came. It didn't take Shiro long to figure out why Matt trusted Drozan so much. The blue-skinned alien was a good person, whose loyalty ran deep and true. Soon Shiro found himself trusting the man completely. As soon as Matt finished transforming Shiro's escape pod into a fighter pod, Shiro joined the other pilots in practicing the training drills he and Drozan had worked out together. He had to admit, it felt good to just be able to fly again, without the added pressure of leading a team and keeping up a mental bond with Black. It felt good, but it also felt empty somehow. He wanted to get back to his duty of being a Paladin, as soon as possible.

Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer had chosen to join the Rebel Alliance. Soon they were going out on their own missions to collect weapons for the Rebels to use. They knew all the best spots and they knew their weapons. This meant that the Rebels' armoury was steadily being stocked up. When Matt wasn't working on boosting his signal for Pidge, he was working on plans to work the new weapons into the fighter pods, or figuring out what they would need to make more of some weapons, or designing his own weapons.

So, yes, they definitely hadn't been idle. But after a month with no word from his team, Shiro just couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. And neither could Matt. So, along with Drozan, they began to plan a mission to go out and find the others instead.

Which is what they were busy with when they were interrupted by one of the lieutenants in charge of communications. He burst into the war room, where they were situated, breathing heavily. Nervous tension radiated off of him as he told them that they had received a distress call from the nearby small trade moon that was under their protection.

The trio in the war room immediately sprang into action, all plans for finding team Voltron momentarily forgotten.

Matt listened to the lieutenant long enough to hear that a fleet of about 20 pirate ships were attacking the moon. None of them had landed yet, but it wouldn't be long until they did.

"Drozan," Matt said, his voice taking on a commanding tone, "Get _Penelope_ , I want to be off planet in 20 dobashes. Shiro, go get the other pilots, we're going to need all of you. Do you think the new guy is ready?"

Shiro took a moment to consider as Drozan ran off to get _Penelope_ , the newest pilot was getting there, but Shiro didn't think he was at quite the right level for fighting this big of a fleet yet, even as part of a team. "No," Shiro answered, "Not yet."

Matt nodded, "Take Rolo in his place, then. He has more experience."

Shiro nodded and went off to do as Matt said. He had to admit that being on the receiving end of orders being again was kind of a weird feeling.

Exactly 20 dobashes later, _Penelope_ was loaded with pilots, fighter pods, and taking off from the Balmera.

"Alright," Matt said as they exited the Balmera's atmosphere, rubbing his hands together with a slightly excited grin on his face, "I can finally test that new canon I installed on this baby on a real fleet."

Shiro shot a look at him but didn't comment.

Soon _Penelope_ reached the moon's airspace. Immediately they are greeted with the sight of a fleet of pirates in colourful fighter pods circling the small moon

"Vran," Matt addressed the rebel in charge of communications on the ship, "Have any of the pirates landed yet?"

"No, sir." Vran answered immediately, "The moon's base has not yet reported pirates on their surface."

Matt nodded, "Good. Pilots, get to your pods, get out there and shoot some pirate tail."

Shiro, Drozan, Rolo, and the other three responded with an enthusiastic, "Yes sir!"

In no time at all, all the Rebel fighter pods were out and engaging the pirates, with Drozan in the lead, with Matt coordinating from _Penelope_.

"I recognize these colours." Drozan said as Shiro and the others followed a maneuver they had practiced dozens of times over the past month to separate the enemy, making the pirate pods easier to pick off. All the pirate pods have accents of blue, green, and yellow. A stark contrast to the jet black of the Rebel pods, "They belong to Lord Gruffolo's fleet."

"Lord Gruffolo?" Matt asked as Shiro did a barrel roll to avoid being shot while at the same time putting himself into position to return fire.

"One of the most powerful pirate lords this side of the universe." Drozan answered as Shiro took out his opponent's thrusters. The pirate pod spiralled out of control and crashed into one of its comrades.

"Nice one, Shiro!" Matt cheered as Shiro turned his pod to face his next opponent.

"He has a very large fleet, this is only a small fraction of it." Drozan continued as if Matt hadn't spoken.

"We need to get rid of them before they can call for backup, then." Matt said.

"Indeed." Drozan answered grimly.

At first, things things seemed to be going well. The pilots Shiro flew with's skills either rivaled his own or surpassed them. As such, the six of them didn't have much difficulty taking out the majority of the small fleet they were up against. Of course, the new cannon Matt had installed on _Penelope_ came in as a big help, too. Exhilaration coursed through Shiro's veins along with adrenaline. Flying on his own was an altogether different rush from flying with his lion. One he hadn't really realised how much he had missed until now.

He had just engaged with one of the few remaining pirates when more fighter pods started popping seemingly out of nowhere. Obviously these pirates were capable of hyperspace travel.

Matt swore. "They called for backup!"

In a matter of seconds they were absolutely surrounded by colourful pirate fighter pods. Soon each Rebel fighter was separated from each other and from _Penelope_

Shiro cursed, "Matt, how many?"

"Fifty so far, but more are coming! You guys need to cut your way through them. Do whatever you can to make it back to _Penelope_!" Matt punctuated his command by blasting his cannon into the ships in front of him.

Then all hell broke loose.

The next few minutes were nothing but a blur of flying, barrel rolls, quick maneuvers and firing whatever shots he could get off at enemy fighters. He and the others were holding their own for now, but he knew that there were just too many pirates. And they were doing a damn good job of keeping him and the rest of the rebels from reaching _Penelope_. No matter how many fighters Matt took out with his canon, or how many fighters Shiro or one of the other Rebel fighters managed to shoot down, new ones seemed to replace them almost instantly.

Things were not looking good. They needed a miracle if they were to survive this.


	9. Chapter 9

Shiro knew they needed a miracle. He didn't expect them to actually get one. He definitely didn't expect it to come in the form of the Castle of Lions exiting a wormhole _right in front of him._

He'd been busy trying to lead a couple of the pirate fighters away from the main group, to be able to pick them off more easily, and had to bank _hard_ to avoid crashing right into the Castle. It sent him into a terrifying, uncontrolled spin. He had never needed to fight so hard to regain control of anything he had flown before. When he finally did, his head was spinning and his stomach was churning.

It took him a couple of seconds to regain his senses and to realise exactly what he had almost crashed into. Once he did, he let out a loud cheer.

"Shiro! Are you okay?" Matt's concerned voice came over the comms.

"Hell yeah!" Shiro shouted as he watched all five lions peel out of their respective hangers on the Castle of Lions. He had never witnessed it himself, and he had to admit that it was a spectacular sight. He wondered for a brief moment who was currently piloting the red lion, since he was pretty sure that would be Keith in the black. But it wasn't important right now, he'd find out later.

He felt the familiar presence of the black lion resurface in the back of his mind, immediately followed by a wave of relief. Shiro sent a wave of affection back at his lion, _I missed you, too._

"Friends of yours?" Matt asked.

"Oh, yeah." Shiro said, grinning hugely as he shot back into the fray, "Quick, contact the Castle and tell Allura not to shoot us! They won't know who's who out here. Drozan, we can try to lead the pirates to the lions so they can take them out for us."

Drozan acknowledged and ordered the rest of the Rebel pilots to get ready to carry out the plan as soon as the paladins knew not to shoot them.

"Shiro," Matt said a moment later, frustration evident in his tone, "Could you please tell this Coran guy that I'm not a pirate trying to pull a fast one on him!"

Shiro heard the click of his comm being connected to the Castle's, "Coran, it's Shiro. Tell the others not to fire on the black fighter pods." he shouted, "The pirates are the colourful ships. I'm leading a few of them past you! Please get them off my tail!"

He flew right past the Castle's bridge as he spoke, five pirates close on his tail.

"Right." Coran acknowledged.

A moment later the Castle's cannons took care of his tail.

"Thanks." he said as he swung his pod around to join the fight again.

As he did so, he heard Coran relay the information over the paladins, and connect everyone's comms.

"Alright, boys!" Matt said, "The _Power Rangers_ are here to offer their assistance! Lead the pirates to the giant, colourful, flying lions!"

Shiro rolled his eyes as he followed the command.

"Did… did I just hear someone call us the _Power Rangers_?" Lance asked incredulously as Shiro goaded a few more pirates into chasing him.

"Dude, I take offense to that!" Hunk added.

"Wait - Matt?!" Pidge exclaimed, her lion suddenly stopping its attack on the pirate pods.

"Guys, fight space pirates now, be offended later."

"Excuse you, I can do both!" Lance said even as he took out a number of pirate pods with his sonic cannon.

Shiro put himself in the line of sight of a pirate and started a game of chicken with it while another one followed close on his tail.

"Shiro," Rolo said in a resigned voice, "Please tell me that's not you playing chicken with a couple of pirates."

Shiro didn't answer. He had to hold steady for a few more seconds.

 _Almost… almost..._

He heard Matt sigh, "Of course he is."

 _Now!_

Shiro threw his pod into a barrel roll at the last second. For a few moments all he could see was a blur of stars tinted orange by the explosion caused by colliding pirate fighters.

Rolo swore. Matt sighed.

"Shiro," Drozan barked, "That was dangerous and unnecessary."

"I agree." Allura said, making her voice heard for the first time since the Castle of Lions arrived.

The feeling he got from Black was that he shouldn't have tried something like that without him.

"I knew what I was doing." Shiro defended himself.

"SHIRO?!" four voices sounded over the comms.

"Hey, guys." Shiro greeted as he lead another tail toward the black lion.

"Guys, focus now. Reunions later." Matt said, clearly imitating Keith's earlier tone.

"Shut up, Matt." Shiro said fondly, "He's right though. Keith, you've got this. Show these guys that Voltron is _much_ better than the _Power Rangers._ "

"You got it." Keith said and immediately sending the others to different strategic points around the attacking fleet, his voice taking up a commanding tone that Shiro had never heard coming from him before. He felt a swell of pride rise in his chest. He'd worried that he hadn't had enough time to properly prepare Keith to take on the role of a leader, but it seemed that he needn't have. Keith really did have this.

The battle didn't last much longer. At first it seemed as if the pirates wouldn't give up. Then Keith gave the command to form Voltron. Not long after, the pirates evidently chose life over fighting the legendary defender of the universe and fled.

For a few minutes all that could be heard over the comms was the cheers of both teams as Voltron disbanded.

Once they had calmed, Matt called the Rebels back to _Penelope_.

"Except for you, Shiro." he said, "You go to the Castle and give them the coordinates for the base. There's no way I'm giving it out over lines that could be hacked."

"Yes, sir." Shiro said, resisting the urge to tease Matt for his paranoia partially because he understood the paranoia, but mostly because the other rebels would hear and not all of them would take the teasing lightly.

"That is so weird." Lance said, "Hearing Shiro take orders."

Shiro merely laughed and Matt snorted.

"Can't I come onto your ship, Matt?" Pidge asked eagerly.

"Sorry, Katie," Matt said, sounding genuinely put out, "I would say yes, but our bay area is nowhere near big enough for your lion. I'll see you soon, Katie. I promise."

Shiro smiled as he turned his pod toward the Castle, with a distinct feeling in his chest telling him that he was finally going _home._


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has favd and followed this story. And a special thanks to everyone who left a comment (ESPECIALLY YOU, RANGERGIRL3) each comment absolutely made my day!**

 **Just a quick note, this story was written as part of the Volton Gen Mini Bang, so there's art that goes with this chapter! You can check it out by opening this story on A03 - I'm also Cocopops1995 over there :)**

 **Please enjoy the last chapter!**

* * *

Shiro stepped out of the pod and had only a moment to savour the feeling of being back in the Castle for the first time in over a month. He smiled as he heard his lion purring happily in the back of his mind. He wanted Shiro to come see him soon, but he also understood that the other paladins would want to see Shiro first, so he would be patient. For now.

Shiro promised he would go see Black as soon as he could.

Then a door slid open and the first person he saw was Keith, running towards him. Shiro smiled and opened his arms - and was nearly knocked over by the force of Keith's hug. Shiro could tell just how worried Keith had been, and just how much Keith had missed him from the force of his hug alone.

"Don't ever do that again!" Keith hissed in Shiro's ear.

Shiro could hear the barely suppressed emotion behind Keith's words. He responded by tightening his arms around Keith.

"I missed you, too." Shiro answered.

And that was all he could get out before he actually was knocked over by the rest of the paladins who had finally reached him and evidently decided that they wanted in on the hugging too. They collapsed into a pile of laughing, crying, warm bodies.

Shiro's heart was warmed by their enthusiastic response to his return, but he soon began to run out of air.

"Guys… can't… breathe." He managed to gasp out from underneath the pile of paladins.

As soon as the others let him up, Allura and Coran were the next to greet him. Allura by pulling him into a tight hug. Coran by putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly as he said: "It's good to have you back, Number 1."

The other paladins were all talking over each other. Asking him questions about what happened to him, where he was, why he was taking orders from Matt (that one was definitely Pidge) and what the heck he was doing fighting an entire fleet of pirates in such a tiny, dinged up fighter pod.

Shiro chuckled and held up his hand to get them to quiet down. "Guys, I promise I'll explain everything later. But first, let's get back to the Rebel base, okay?"

They all looked like they wanted to ask more questions, Pidge especially, but then Keith spoke up.

"Shiro's right, guys. We're kind of in the open now. It will be better to talk when we're in a safer spot." He said.

Shiro felt another surge of pride in his chest as he watched the others nod in agreement, even if they still didn't look happy about it. It was good to know that now there was someone else they would actually listen to. He made a mental note to tell Keith exactly how proud he was later.

Shiro turned to Allura and held out his Galra prosthetic. "The coordinates are on here."

He did not miss the almost simultaneous eyebrow raise that everyone did at that and shrugged. "When I told Matt about Ulaz putting coordinates in it he thought it was a great idea."

Pidge grinned and rolled her eyes, "Of course he did. Come on, let's get those coordinates. The faster we get to this Rebel base, the better."

By the time they reached the Balmera's airspace, Shiro had explained most of what happened from when he'd woken up on the Galra prison supply ship to when he'd escaped with Rolo and Nyma.

Hunk snorted, "I'm surprised they didn't turn you over the moment they had the chance."

"They're good people." Shiro said defensively, "Anyway, then we got picked up by Matt and his guys. He'll kill me if I tell you the rest of the story without him, though."

"Is - is my dad there too?" Pidge asked, wringing her hands nervously.

Shiro's heart clenched at the hopeful look in her eyes. He hated to be the one to break the news to her, but he couldn't very well leave her without an answer now that she had asked.

He shook his head and laid a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly, "Matt said that he and your dad got separated. He's been searching for your dad ever since he got out."

Pidge's face fell, and Shiro couldn't stand the sudden heartbroken look that had replaced the hope in her features.

"Hey," he said, pulling her in for another hug, "Now that you have Matt back, the two of you can work together to find your dad! Together, you'll find your dad in no time. You'll see."

She nodded, but kept her arms wrapped around him. He was content to let her hold him for as long as she needed.

When they landed on the Balmera, everyone was as amazed by it's sheer beauty as Shiro had been. Coran had actual tears in his eyes because _this_ was what a Balmera should look like.

Matt and Drozan were waiting for them when they stepped out of the Castle.

Pidge, who had been sticking relatively close to Shiro, broke into a sprint, headed straight for her brother. Matt dropped to his knees and caught her in waiting arms. They both sank down, Matt sitting down and pulling his sister into his lap, and just held one another. Shiro could see both their shoulders shaking as they cried.

He stopped a few meters away, allowing them a private family moment.

Drozan seemed to have the same idea and walked up to Shiro.

Shiro noted a mistiness to Drozan's eyes and remembered that the man had lost his own brother not too long ago. Seeing Matt reunited with his sister couldn't have been easy for Drozan.

Once Drozan reached him, Shiro placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and then introduced him to the rest of Team Voltron.

Matt and Pidge joined them not long after. Matt had his one arm slung over Pidge's shoulders, and she had both of hers wrapped around his waist.

Once they reached Shiro and the others, Matt swept his free arm out in a welcoming gesture and said: "Welcome to the Balmera; home of the Rebel Alliance!"

There was a moment of silence before both Matt and Shiro burst out laughing at the four, incredulous faces of the paladins staring back at Matt.

"Y-you can't be serious." Hunk stammered, "You're not serious, right? I mean you guys are laughing. Obviously you're not serious."

"Oh, he's serious alright." Shiro answered with a grin, having calmed somewhat.

"No way." Lance said, and looked like he wanted to say more but then they were joined by Leia, who enthusiastically introduced herself.

Both Lance and Hunk looked like they might faint when they heard her name.

Keith didn't seem to be capable of doing much more than just shaking his head in a mixture of bewilderment and awe.

When Matt asked how Team Voltron had known that the Rebels needed help, Pidge excitedly explained that they had picked Matt's signal out a few vargas ago and they had been on their way to find him when they had intercepted the distress signal from the trading moon. So they'd stopped to help. They hadn't been expecting to find anyone already fighting the pirates.

Matt ruffled Pidge's hair and had the biggest proud big brother smile Shiro had ever seen on his face. "That's my Katie."

Pidge grinned and squeezed her brother tighter.

Shiro smiled warmly at them, but then noticed that Allura was sending him her patented "We need to talk." look. He sent a slight nod back in response and quirked an eyebrow, silently asking if it was something that needed to be discussed right now. Her features softened slightly and she shook her head slightly. It could wait for now. Shiro nodded once more. They'd talk about it later.

Shiro could tell from her expression that whatever she wanted to talk to him about would not be good news. But he refused to dwell on what it might be right then.

For now, he was happy. He'd been reunited with his team. With his _family._ And he wasn't about to let anything ruin it for him.

He watched Keith approach Drozan and ask about the blue alien's sword. Lance and Hunk were already in deep conversation with Leia about something, and Pidge and Matt also deep in conversation with each other.

Shiro had been reunited with his family, yes, but now Shiro realised too that his family had _grown._

As he stood there on the glittering hills of a healthy Balmera, with the Castle of Lions standing tall and proud behind him; his lion purring happily in the back of his mind; and surrounded by his ever growing family; Shiro smiled.


End file.
